The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Tag Archives: Christmas

Holiday review

Posted on by Posted in Family .

May she believe in Santa until she is 28:

 Making sure the birthday doesn’t get mixed in with Christmas: 

Oh the pains I went through (wink wink) to make these cookies:

On to decorating the Christmas tree: 

And then the school concerts:

 

Christmas Eve giddiness:

Me and the siblings:

Enjoying time with Mimi:

 Some how managed to get the four cousins together:

Some moments are just too priceless for words:

Cookies were phenomenal Santa loved his cookies:

The stockings were hung by the chimney …

Actually the full reading as an annual tradition (will need a king bed soon):

Ready to come downstairs on Christmas morning:

Football cards were the gift du jour:

A little excited to get the Barbie jet:

May be the best looking jersey of all time: 

She never ceases to amaze me with her creativity:

Some one listened to one of my podcasts where some of my friends recommended a certain garden tool from Cobrahead:

 How you like the use of the Norfolk Island Pine?

If you look closely in the background, you can see the reenactment of George Washington crossing the Delaware River:

More time with cousins:

A lot of board games over the break (and I swear I didn’t peak at the football game once):

And a new found obsession for roller skating: 

 Time to get our glitter on for New Year’s Eve:

Some creative use for cotton candy:

Maybe you want to join us on New Year’s Eve and shut off Minecraft for a little while?

After her 15th New Year’s Eve, she has the right to be exhausted:

Oh look, he’s back and participating with the rest of us: 

And finally, my two best ladies:

Happy New Year!

John

Chilling after Christmas

Posted on by Posted in Uncategorized .
And just like that, it’s over: 
The stockings are no longer hung by the chimney with care … 
We’ve gone from 160 mph to about 5 mph in the course of a few days. I may not even have a pulse right now, that’s how “chill” we all are. And that’s a good thing. 
It’s all about riding the new Barbie bike:     

 And organizing the football cards while looking up their value on the new Kindle Fire:

We had a Christmas for the ages with family (My son will regret agreeing to wear these pajamas in a few years):

 

The kids are at the absolute perfect age right now (9 and 6) and I dread them getting even a year older.

My son is a non believer in Santa so we plotted a way to get him to believe for one more year. He is an incredibly deep sleeper so we knew we could wake him in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve without him truly waking up. We nudged him a bit and then played the sound of sleigh bells through my phone. He opened his eyes and looked around in terror as we left the room. On Christmas morning, he insisted he heard noises in the middle of the night and looked out his window to see reindeer on the front lawn. Score one for the parents!

On a personal level, my wife gave me a subscription to Fine Gardening and a private lesson with a local photographer. I couldn’t be more fired up about that. Watch out readers, my photography obsession will be taken to new heights.

Speaking of photography obsession, I am off from work the remainder of this week and all I plan on doing is trying to hunt down the birds that have been flocking to the yard like mad:  
 

Hope you had a great holiday and here’s to 2012!

John

Happy Holidays

Posted on by Posted in Winter interest .
I’d like to wish everyone of you (except Alex) a happy and healthy holiday and thank you for reading my nonsense throughout the year. This blog is an incredible creative escape for me and I thank you all for your fantastic comments along the way. I am ready, with your help, to take on yet another winter and will continue with my promise to not complain about a thing. 
John       

My “Twelve Days of Gardening” song

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I ask that you actually sing as you read it. It will make it that much more enjoyable/absurd.  
“On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a kid who gives a shit about gardening“: 

“On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, two sets of cojones so I could shoot the deer on my property”:

“On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, more shrubs with three seasons of interest”

“On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four lessons on how to take photos of interesting birds”:

“On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, fiiiiiiiive … golden … foliaged …. conifers“:  

“On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six more ornamental grasses with vertical interest”:

“On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven more days in the week so I can remove all of the lawn from my property”:

“On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eight shots of performance enhancing drugs so I can keep up with my mammoth weeds”:

“On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, nine reminders to stake my larger perennials”:

“On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, ten extended days of peony bloom time”:

“On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, eleven kick ass native plants“:

“On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, twelve months of summer”:

A fantastic Hunterdon County weekend

Posted on by Posted in Local .
We look forward to this same weekend every year. 
The first weekend following Thanksgiving is when we cut down our Christmas tree and sample all that beautiful, scenic Hunterdon County, New Jersey has to offer. We’ve done it every year since we moved out here. Last year was an eventful one which you can read about here if you are so inclined. No such drama this year.   
Rosemont Tree Farm has always been our tree farm of choice and this year was no different. The selection of trees is overwhelming and the kids can get lost within minutes. Here they are before running off in different directions:  

As is always the case, the kids could not agree on a tree so we had to threaten them in order to come to a mutual decision. Threats carry a lot of weight this time of year with Santa’s arrival on the horizon and I make sure to take full advantage of that. That is called leverage or good parenting.

We finally identified our tree and were ready to take her home:

And guess who kicked some major booty and cut her down?:

Hours later the tree was defeated and victory was mine (Note how over the whole thing my daughter is):

Beautiful tree with needles like knives. Guess who forgot gloves and still has bloodied fingers? This tough guy, who is hiding it well as this photo was taken:

The tree was stuffed in the car and we headed out to lunch down on the Delaware River. It was an exceptionally warm and sunny day and a great time to be outside:

This year, we hit up the Frenchtown Cafe, a local favorite. This place is always on the money. Click on the photo below and you can read all of the positive reviews that have been posted. Lines wind out the door on weekend mornings but it is worth the wait:    

Did it all end there? Hell no. That night, we made it out to the town tree lighting and even brought our ageless 12 year old dog, Casey, who I’m pretty sure made at least 50 people smile. She has that way about her:

Santa arrived dramatically via firetruck and my son reluctantly posed with him after making sure none of his classmates were around. My daughter, on the other hand, ate it all up:  

It was the perfect weekend that felt like it was right out of a Lifetime movie … without the murder or sordid affairs. Good times indeed:    

John